Different strategies have been designed to provide uniform and efficient light distribution over a given area. For example, display cases are commonly used in retail applications, such as the refrigerated cases in supermarkets and convenience stores, to display merchandise and are commonly arranged into banks of shelving displays or showcase displays for holding goods. Typically, such display cases are illuminated by fluorescent light fixtures. While providing certain benefits over incandescent lighting, fluorescent lights themselves have inherent power and maintenance requirements and related costs. Fluorescent lights also contain mercury causing substantial environmental concerns and costs.
Certain techniques have been employed to install alternate sources of lighting in place of fluorescent lights. Such techniques typically require contemporaneous altering of the structural support adjacent to the fluorescent light fixtures, such as by drilling holes. For applications including refrigerated food and beverage displays, such techniques can lead to unnecessary wasted cooling energy, excess labor, and possibly spoiling of the refrigerated items themselves as well as costs related to each.
Light emitting diodes (LEDs) have been used in various applications where incandescent or fluorescent lights have been used. Because individual LEDs are essentially point light sources, as opposed to continuous elements, such as incandescent and fluorescent lights, lighting uniformity has proven challenging to achieve for many applications.